- Amazon has enough satellites to launch its Starlink competitor
Source: The Verge
“Amazon says it now has enough satellites operating in low-Earth orbit to light up its Starlink internet competitor. With last night’s launch, Amazon Leo has 396 satellites deployed, which is “enough to support continuous service across initial latitudes,” according to Chris Weber, VP heading up business and product for Amazon Leo. That puts the company on track to meet its “mid-2026” target for commercial availability. Just don’t expect miracles on day one. SpaceX went live with its ‘Better than nothing beta’ back in 2020 when it had almost 900 satellites operating in low-Earth orbit.” (07/02/26)
https://www.theverge.com/science/960563/amazon-leo-service-tipping-point
- Report: OpenAI proposes 5% nationalization to bribe Trump
Source: CNBC
“OpenAI has proposed handing the U.S. government a 5% stake in the company, the Financial Times reported Thursday, as the artificial intelligence startup seeks to defuse mounting political pressure in Washington. A 5% holding would be worth roughly $42.6 billion, after the AI lab closed a record-breaking funding round in March at a post-money valuation of $852 billion. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman argued that giving the public a financial interest in the company is the best way to share the upside of AI, the FT reported, citing two people familiar with the talks. Altman suggested a stake of that size in early discussions with the Trump administration, as part of a broader arrangement under which Washington would hold 5% of each of the leading U.S. AI developers via a government vehicle, according to the report.” (07/02/26)
- The Declaration’s forgotten (non)signer: John Dickinson’s missing 1776 signature haunts his legacy
Source: SFGate
“For a quarter century, Jane Calvert has been on a mission shared by few scholars of the Revolutionary War era. She has championed a founder mostly remembered, when remembered at all, as the man who wouldn’t sign the Declaration of Independence — the lawyer and statesman John Dickinson. ‘It has been a constant struggle’, says Calvert, a former associate professor at the University of Kentucky who has written often about Dickinson and is the founder of the John Dickinson Writings Project, which aims to make his works widely available. For much of the country, the 250th anniversary of independence on Saturday is a time for celebrating and debating the country’s birth. But for Calvert and others, it’s also a moment to challenge the lingering image of a man who at times has been ignored, ridiculed or literally cast aside.” (07/02/26)
- Breakaway Catholic group excommunicated after defying warnings from Pope Leo
Source: CNN
“The Vatican announced Thursday that priests and members of a breakaway Catholic group that ordained four new bishops in defiance of Pope Leo XIV’s wishes are in schism and excommunicated. The Society of Saint Pius X, an ultra-traditionalist group, went ahead with the ordinations on Wednesday without papal approval and despite appeals from Leo to reverse the decision. In response, the Vatican’s doctrinal office on Thursday published a decree saying that the four bishops are excommunicated, along with the two bishops who participated in the ordination ceremony. Excommunication means they are excluded from the sacraments of the church. It added in an explanatory note that priests belonging to the society and lay members who ‘formally adhere’ to the group are also in schism and excommunicated.” (07/02/26)
- US helicopter goes down in Arabian Sea, crew member missing, Navy says
Source: CBS News
“Three members of a four-person MH-60S Sea Hawk helicopter crew were rescued at sea after an ’emergency water landing’ in the Arabian Sea early Wednesday morning, according to U.S. Naval Forces Central Command. A search continues for the fourth and final crew member. There is ‘no indication’ the helicopter was shot down by hostile action, the military said. The helicopter is assigned to the USS George H.W. Bush.” (07/01/26)
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/u-s-helicopter-goes-down-in-arabian-sea-crew-member-missing-navy-says/
- Venezuelan security guard pulled alive from building basement 8 days after twin quakes
Source: SFGate
“Rescuers pulled a 43-year-old security guard alive from a collapsed basement early Thursday, ending a grueling days-long operation that became a symbol of hope after the devastation of twin earthquakes that struck Venezuela eight days earlier. Hernán Alberto Gil Flores was extracted safely after being trapped since June 24 under the rubble in the basement of the Galerías Playa Grande shopping center in the coastal town in La Guaira. Rescuers initially made contact with him over the weekend. Teams carrying flags from across the world cheered as rescuers carried Gil, wearing an oxygen mask on a stretcher covered in an orange tarp, through throngs of people into a Red Cross ambulance. A group of men in red Costa Rican Red Cross uniforms embraced and laughed in relief, while others broke out into applause. The rescue was considered a small miracle cutting through a week of tragedy.” (07/02/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/venezuelan-security-guard-pulled-alive-from-22330064.php
- Greece: Attackers target home of ruling party figures, killing one
Source: The New Arab [UK]
“Attackers targeted the homes of three politicians from Greece’s ruling party with homemade explosives on Wednesday, leaving one person dead and four wounded, police told AFP. The attacks at dawn in the northern city of Thessaloniki targeted figures from the New Democracy party with devices made from gas bottles. … The Kathimerini news website reported that the parents of former party candidate Afroditi Nestora were injured and taken to hospital. It identified the other two targets as the party’s executive committee president Zisis Ioakimovic and former MP Savvas Anastasiades. Nestora’s mother died on Wednesday evening, according to the Thessaloniki hospital where she had been taken for treatment. … Police did not say who might have carried out the attacks or suggest a motive. The anti-terrorist division was investigating. Leftist and anarchist groups often use improvised explosives to target political figures, banks and companies in Greece, causing damage but rarely any casualties.” (07/02/26)
https://www.newarab.com/news/attackers-target-homes-greek-ruling-party-figures-killing-one
- US DOJ Department Sues Virginia, California Reimges Over Victim Disarmament Laws
Source: US News & World Report
“The U.S. Department of Justice on Wednesday filed a lawsuit against Virginia and state police, accusing them of enacting a law that it said unconstitutionally bans the purchase and sale of ordinary semi-automatic rifles, according to a statement. The department also sued California on Wednesday to halt the state’s newly enacted ‘Glock Ban’, it said in a separate release.” (07/01/26)
- They Fearmonger About “Communism” Because They Can’t Oppose Real Problems
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone“As self-styled ‘democratic socialists’ make some advancements in blue states, Republicans have launched a renewed fearmongering campaign about the urgent threat of ‘communism’ — an ideology with no meaningful political existence in the United States. At a speech on Wednesday, President Trump said that ‘communism is the greatest threat to our country’ and would lead to ‘the ultimate annihilation of civilization’. This is just the latest in a string of rhetoric from the president as he tries to drum up fear about progressive Democrats to prevent massive losses in the midterms. Democratic socialist politicians are still a small minority in US politics, and conflating them with communists is absurd. Communism seeks the complete dismantling of capitalism and the imperialist world order it holds in place at gunpoint, while western ‘democratic socialists’ typically just seek a gentler, more photogenic capitalist empire where things like healthcare and public transportation are funded by taxes.” (07/02/26)
- America’s rich tradition of July Fourth protest is worth recalling
Source: Philadelphia Inquirer
by M Todd Bennett & David McKean“No Kings and other protests opposing the policies and executive overreach of the Trump administration continue to draw crowds across the country, most recently on Flag Day, June 14, which was also the president’s 80th birthday. While critics have denounced these demonstrators as un-American — House Speaker Mike Johnson called a 2025 No Kings march a ‘hate America rally’ — those voicing dissent, pushing for change and speaking truth to power are, in fact, participating in a tradition at our nation’s core. That tradition dates back to July 4, 1776, when the Continental Congress, citing a list of grievances, declared independence from the rule of a would-be despot, King George III.” (07/02/26)
https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/commentary/july-fourth-protest-20260702.html
- The Declaration of Independence Versus America’s Immigration Police State
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger“This week — the week in which Americans celebrate the Declaration of Independence — U.S. immigration police arrested a Catholic nun in McAllen, Texas, as she was walking to Mass. They handcuffed her, confiscated her rosary, and incarcerated her. But before anyone reacts too harshly to such misconduct, let’s keep in mind some important points. It is the responsibility of the U.S. immigration police to keep us safe. Who’s to say that woman was really a nun? She could easily have been a Muslim fanatic disguised as a nun who was invading America to establish a worldwide caliphate and Sharia law. Indeed, she could have been a terrorist, drug dealer or, even worse, both — a narco-terrorist!” (07/02/26)
- On the Moral Foundations of America
Source: Cato Institute
by Roger Pilon“Of all that makes America—the subject of this symposium—nothing has been more crucial or consequential than our having constituted ourselves as a people on sound moral, political, and legal principles—the ‘self-evident truths’ set forth in our Declaration of Independence and then instituted through our Constitution as corrected by the Civil War Amendments—for those principles are the very foundation of our liberty. Yet many Americans today seriously misunderstand them, while still others reject even their preconditions—reason, objectivity, and free speech.” (07/02/26)
- Living better, not just longer
Source: Christian Science Monitor
by staff“In an era of information overload, genuinely fresh news and concepts can occasionally get obscured by the ‘slop’. But eventually, thought-expanding data and perspectives rise to the surface and into wider public attention. This appears to be the case with a Yale University study on aging in America published in an academic journal in early March. The findings of ‘Aging Redefined’, now being reported in mainstream media, defy – and can help redefine – long-held and limiting views about the United States’ older demographic. Collecting data on some 11,000 participants over a 12-year period, the researchers found that nearly half of American adults age 65 or older became physically stronger, mentally more acute, or both. ‘If this finding was extrapolated to the entire US population, it would suggest that more than 26 million older persons are experiencing [such] improvement,’ the study’s authors noted.” (07/01/26)
https://www.csmonitor.com/Editorials/the-monitors-view/2026/0701/Living-better-not-just-longer
- Let’s Recapture the Spirit of 1976
Source: Independent Institute
by Robert M Whaples“In 1976, millions proudly recommitted themselves to the American experiment. Today, we should do the same.” (07/02/26)
https://www.independent.org/article/2026/07/02/recapture-spirit-1976/
- America, we’ll give our best to you
Source: Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression
by Tyler MacQueen“They could have died. We forget that now. After appeals to history and self-evident truths and the long train of abuses and usurpations, the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence pledged their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor to a cause that was not certain. To an idea as radical as their revolution. To a notion of a nation yet to be built.” (07/02/26)
- The Fight in the Democratic Party Is Not Left vs. Center, But Left vs. Left
Source: Washington Monthly
by Bill Scher“The recent string of primary victories from left-wing insurgents are not ushering out moderates, but fellow progressives.” (07/02/26)
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2026/07/02/dsa-democratic-party-the-left-vs-left/
- Trump: Grifter in Chief
Source: Foreign Policy In Focus
by John Feffer“The Trump administration concluded a recent mineral deal with Kazakhstan that, not surprisingly, enriches not only President Donald Trump’s own family but that of his secretary of commerce, Howard Lutnick. Trump’s two eldest sons, part owners of Dominari Securities, are set to profit from the Kazakh tungsten deal. So is Cantor Fitzgerald, the investment firm run by Lutnick’s two sons. As The New York Times pointed out in its investigation of the scheme, ‘Their sons were soon doing business with partners in a deal that their fathers were negotiating, continuing a pattern of self-enrichment in the second Trump administration that has few precedents in American history.’ The phrases (‘self-enrichment’ and ‘few precedents’) are interesting ways of characterizing this latest instance of the administration’s corruption. Isn’t self-enrichment a good thing, in the sense of profiting from your own hard work?” (07/01/26)
- The backlash to Iranian oil sanctions relief misses the point
Source: The Hill
by Brett Erickson“The Trump administration is currently coming under fire for their decision to temporarily lift sanctions on Iranian oil, but the proposed alternatives have become detached from reality. The vocal opponents are treating the decision as though Washington willingly handed Tehran an enormous economic windfall beyond what they would earn regardless of sanctions being imposed. Some are now even pushing for the administration to retroactively amend the waiver by forcing Iranian oil revenues into escrow accounts, which is something Iran would never have agreed to. That may sound tough. It may sound politically appealing. It is also a great way to ensure the destruction of the agreement that reopened the Strait of Hormuz. Diplomacy is not about obtaining ideal outcomes. It is about obtaining achievable outcomes.” (07/02/26)
https://thehill.com/opinion/national-security/5949142-trump-admin-iran-sanctions-waiver/
- A Colonial Coming of Age
Source: Law & Liberty
by James Wallner“This weekend, Americans will celebrate the 250th anniversary of our country’s independence in nationwide celebrations featuring backyard barbecues, fireworks displays, and concerts. President Donald Trump echoed the sentiments of many patriotic revelers and underscored the Declaration’s centrality to America’s political identity when he described the event. ‘With a single sheet of parchment and 56 signatures, America began the greatest political journey in human history.’ But America didn’t begin its journey by declaring its independence. Before those 56 men signed the hallowed document, important events had already made independence a reality. By the summer of 1776, America was well on its way.” (07/02/26)
- Is the United States of America a Republic, and not a Democracy?
Source: Liberal Currents
by Steven L Taylor“Putting a meaningless distinction to bed.” (07/02/26)
https://www.liberalcurrents.com/is-the-united-states-of-america-a-republic-and-not-a-democracy/
- SCOTUS 2026 Term: A Power Grab in Legal Garb
Source: Brennan Center for Justice
by Michael Waldman“How will we remember this Supreme Court term? For Louisiana v. Callais, which demolished the 1965 Voting Rights Act. For near misses, too, as when the Constitution’s plain-language guarantee of birthright citizenship was recognized by only a bare majority of the justices. (As JD Vance crowed, that core protection is now ‘hanging by a thread’.) I think the term may be remembered most as a time when the supermajority of very conservative, very pro-business justices bent the shape of American government. It was a power grab in legal garb, undermining Congress, granting presidents more authority, but with key decisions ultimately in the hands of the nine unelected officials now redesigning government. In 2005, The New York Times Magazine published a story about a cadre of intense anti-government legal activists. They bemoaned ‘the Constitution in exile’, what they saw as an epic wrong turn in the 20th century.” (07/02/26)
https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/supreme-court-chips-away-checks-and-balance
- The Love of Lithium
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Sascha Hannig“[E]lectrification has become a tool of strategic resilience, but electrification—both in appliances and in alternative and green energy supplies—depends on batteries, and batteries depend heavily on lithium; and who owns lithium? Few are asking this question, and, most importantly, how it affects liberal countries, the state of democracy in the Global South, and international supply chains. This is why the lithium market now sits at the center of geopolitical competition.” (07/02/26)
- There Are Very Few Socialists in America
Source: Paul Krugman
by Paul Krugman“Fox News has a poll supposedly showing ‘socialism gaining ground with young voters.’ But I don’t believe it. Young people may be more receptive to the word socialism, but that’s only because right-wingers constantly use that word to smear policies that have nothing to do with real socialism — i.e., government ownership of the means of production. The fact is that very few Americans — even among politicians who call themselves ‘democratic socialists’ — are really socialists. What many, I’d say a majority, of Americans support is what Europeans call social democracy — an ideology that is OK with living in a mostly market-driven economic system in which some people make much more money than others, but one that advocates policies to tame markets and inequality with progressive taxation, safety net programs, and regulations.” [editor’s note: Actually, socialism is defined as worker control, not government ownership, of the means of production. In STATE socialism, the state is a supposed proxy for the workers – TLK] (07/02/26)
https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/there-are-very-few-socialists-in
- Hype crazes
Source: Adam Smith Institute
by Madsen Pirie“I’ve been looking at cases where marketing hype has managed to create a craze for an at-best mediocre product. This is not to suggest that advertising is predatory; on the contrary, I think it provides a necessary service by providing information and allowing people to make choices. In the everyday business of buying clothes, food and drink, travel, luxury goods and grooming, I think it informs us of the availability of certain brands and the advantages to be gained by buying them. But there are some cases where advertising and cultural hype can create a kind of epistemic bubble where social conformity substitutes for quality judgement. Promoters sometimes draw on FOMO, the fear of missing out, to herd people into products of limited value to them.” ()7/02/26)
- What does it mean to be an American? Ask a conservative.
Source: USA Today
by Nicole Russell“America’s abundance is easy to admire. What’s easier to forget is that prosperity isn’t what made America exceptional. Liberty did. In much of the world, rights are treated as privileges the government grants to its citizens. In the American system, it’s the opposite: Rights are inherent to the individual, and the Constitution exists to dictate what government cannot do to you. It’s an extraordinary concept, and one conservatives have committed to upholding.” [editor’s note: Well, that there’s a spit take moment – TLK] (07/02/26)
- Surprise, Surprise. Government Capital Stock Is Deteriorating
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by William L Anderson“Federal IRS workers at the Chamblee Building are often greeted by rats struggling to free themselves from glue traps set about the workplace. Workers at the Veterans Affairs building in Hilo, Hawaii, are having to deal with dangerous infestations of mold. Federal employees in several places, including the Food and Drug Administration building in Washington, DC, are being exposed to Legionella, the bacteria that causes Legionnaires’ disease. In Washington, DC, forty percent of the headquarters of the General Services Administration have been declared unsafe, which means the GSA has had to relocate many of its employees. And the list goes on and on.” (07/02/26)
https://mises.org/mises-wire/surprise-surprise-government-capital-stock-deteriorating
- Who Really Are These New Democratic Socialists and Their Fellow Travelers?
Source: American Greatness
by Victor Davis Hanson“While it is difficult to generalize, many current and would-be socialist officeholders share several common traits. Most of them represent a relatively small slice of American life. Almost all are urban, with little knowledge of small-town or rural existence. Their world is subways, buses, high-rises, Uber, taxis, and proximity to corporate, academic, and financial institutions—yet often with little understanding of where their food, fuel, water, or everyday goods originate, or where their waste and sewage ultimately go. Their worldview is shaped more by consumption than production, as though goods simply arrive in and depart from cities on autopilot. A disproportionate number of our most prominent radicals are either first- or second-generation immigrants, most originating from failed or illiberal states in what was once called the Third World. They or their parents left their homelands in search of wealthier countries, fairer societies, greater opportunity, and, in many cases, safety and freedom.” (07/02/26)
- How Trumpism Betrays the Declaration of Independence
Source: The Bulwark
by Laura K Field“Cherry-picking Lincoln, the MAGA New Right tries to rewrite—or discard altogether—the promise of human equality.” (07/02/26)
https://www.thebulwark.com/p/how-trumpism-betrays-the-declaration-of-independence
- The Supreme Court failed the test posed by Trump
Source: Los Angeles Times
by Jackie Calmes“Even when the Supreme Court disfavored Trump, it showed its ideological and incoherent colors. Though it allowed him to fire independent agency officials without cause, it made an exception for the Federal Reserve in a separate case. Upsetting consumers is OK apparently, but not Wall Street. And the court should have settled the birthright citizenship case against Trump long ago, as many lower-court judges sought to do. His first-day executive order repealing birthright citizenship plainly violated the Constitution, federal law and court precedent — and yet the justices strung out the case and only this week decided on the constitutionality of birthright citizenship by just a 5-4 vote. A counterreaction to Trump and the Supreme Court is coming, I believe. By laws and lawsuits, Congress must begin taking back its constitutional powers over spending, war-making, appointments and more.” (07/02/26)
- The War in Ukraine Arrives at a Crucial Juncture
Source: Antiwar.com
by James Carden“Though relegated to the sidelines thanks to President Donald Trump’s decision to launch an illegal and unjustified war on Iran at the behest of the Israeli warfare state, the war in Ukraine grows more dangerous with each passing day. In fact, recent reports indicate a perilous increase in attacks on energy and civilian infrastructure from both Moscow and Kiev.” (07/02/26)
- The death of the American Dream is highly exaggerated
Source: Washington Post
by Gonzalo Schwarz“As America turns 250 years old, many people say the American Dream is at risk. Last month, an Associated Press-NORC poll found that only one-third of Americans believe the American Dream still exists. A CNBC poll the same month found that a majority of people consider the American Dream out of reach. But most public polling captures what people believe about the accessibility of the American Dream for others. In their own life, they are far more optimistic.” (07/02/26)
- 1776 and All That: Thomas Jefferson on Adam Smith
Source: EconLog
by Hans Eicholz“Yes, Thomas Jefferson had read Smith, but before 1776, he could only have read The Theory of Moral Sentiments, and he read it for much the same reason he read all the other Scottish theorists of his day: Because each, in his own way, had illuminated reasons for confidence in the ability of individuals to exercise personal and political self-government. In other words, each had argued that by either convention (e.g. Hume) or nature (e.g. Kames), human beings were apt to use their individual liberty in ways that promoted a prosperous and orderly society, uncoerced by princes or prelates.” (07/02/26)
- America does not know its own mind
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Charles A Kupchan“Internationalists are once more doing battle with America Firsters, cleaving the body politic between two incompatible approaches to global affairs.” (07/02/26)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/america-first-foreign-policy/
- A Hollow Song For a Hollow President
Source: Common Dreams
by Paul Rogat Loeb“After musician after musician pulled out from President Donald Trump’s ‘Freedom 250’ concert, he was left with Lee Greenwood, an opera tenor, a couple of military bands, and Kash Patel’s girlfriend. The anthem that made Greenwood a star, ‘God Bless the USA,’ was written in 1985 during the height of the Cold War. It begins with the specter of loss: ‘If tomorrow, all the things were gone, I’d worked for all my life/ And I had to start all over with my children and my wife . Then the wounds disappear before they’re felt: ‘I’d thank my lucky stars to be living here today/ Because the flag still stands for freedom and they can’t take that away’. Ronald Reagan made the song his campaign theme while launching a new age of American inequality by systematically busting unions and cutting taxes for the wealthiest.” (07/02/26)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/hollow-song-for-hollow-president
- Why People Say the Economy is Bad: Fees and Insurance
Source: CounterPunch
by Dean Baker“People’s negative assessments of the economy continue to be somewhat of a mystery. The recent run-up in gas prices and inflation more generally is unambiguously bad news, but is this the worst economy ever, as some of the consumer confidence measures have been showing recently? Real income for those at the middle and bottom has generally been rising by standard measures, so it seems that we’re missing something, and I’m not sure any of us have figured out what. My friend, Jared Bernstein, argues that a big part of the story is that consumers are unhappy not just because of inflation, but because prices are high. Implicitly, they expect them to come down and are unhappy that they don’t.” (07/02/26)
https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/07/02/why-people-say-the-economy-is-bad-fees-and-insurance/
- The Cold War Origins of Taiwan’s Silicon Shield
Source: Libertarian Institute
by Joseph Solis-Mullen“Today, Taiwan occupies a uniquely important position in the global economy. The island produces the overwhelming majority of the world’s most advanced semiconductors, manufacturing the chips that power everything from smartphones and artificial intelligence systems to automobiles, satellites, and advanced weapons platforms. Taiwan has become so central to the modern technological order that analysts since the 1990s have routinely described its semiconductor industry as a ‘silicon shield,’ a strategic asset so important that no major power can afford to see it disrupted. As the debate continues over whether to de-risk or re-shore American semi-conductor supply chains, how we arrived at this point can be instructive.” (07/02/26)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/the-cold-war-origins-of-taiwans-silicon-shield
- Hamilton’s Economic Vision Had One Crucial Blind Spot
Source: The Daily Economy
by Donald J Boudreaux“Hamilton recognized the importance of manufacturing but overlooked the market processes that create lasting prosperity.” (07/02/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/hamiltons-economic-vision-had-one-crucial-blind-spot/
- America’s Hard Left and Right Have Had It With Israel
Source: The American Conservative
by Jack Hunter“Rather than debate their critics on the merits, many in the establishments of both parties have sought to dismiss any criticism of Israel as antisemitism, pure and simple. As Sen. Ted Cruz said last month during a diatribe against the popular commentator (and noted Israel skeptic) Tucker Carlson, ‘We are seeing a cancer on the right. It is rising antisemitism …. Here’s the scary thing: I’ve seen more antisemitism on the right over the last 18 months than any time in my life.’ … Leaving aside the histrionics, the Senator from Texas is right about one thing—both the hard right and the hard left have ended up in a similar place on Israel. And for similar reasons: opposition to American vassalage, disgust with the treatment of Palestinians, skepticism of the endless regional wars, and a conviction that our resources are better spent at home.” (07/02/26)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/americas-hard-left-and-right-have-had-it-with-israel/
- Can reliable international comparisons of human flourishing be made using subjective survey data?
Source: Freedom and Flourishing
by Winton Bates“The idea that human flourishing is the proper measure of a good society goes back to Aristotle, but modern attempts to compare flourishing internationally using subjective survey data raise difficult questions. That is illustrated in the scatter chart shown above – which compares the degree of human flourishing in different countries as measured by the new Global Flourishing Study (GFS) with average life evaluation data for those countries using the methodology of the World Happiness Report (WHR).” (07/01/26)
https://www.freedomandflourishing.com/2026/07/can-reliable-international-comparisons.html
- More Noise than Signal from Latest Chiefs Release
Source: Show-Me Institute
by Patrick Tuohey“The Kansas City Chiefs just released a two-page statement with numerous claims about the benefits of a new stadium, practice facility, and team headquarters in Kansas. There are reasons to be skeptical. First, the press release includes some findings from an economic impact analysis that was conducted by a consultant the team hired. We don’t have the full report itself—just these selected highlights the Chiefs chose to share.” (07/01/26)
- Fountainhead Forum, episode 467
Source: Fountainhead Forum
“Revecca Whiting on running for US Senate and fighting wars in the Middle East.” (07/02/26)
- The Libertarian Angle, 07/02/26
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
“The Two Revolutions in 1776.” (07/02/26)
- The Briefing Podcast with Michael Waldman, 07/02/26
Source: Brennan Center for Justice
“Power Grab: Supreme Court Delivers for Trump (with Sam Breidbart and Eric Petry).” (07/02/26)
- Nerdcast, 07/02/26
Source: Politico
“Can the American experiment survive? (with Ken Burns).” (07/02/26)
- Rising, 07/02/26
Source: The Hill
“Robby Soave gives his radar looking at how many countries in Europe refuse to install air conditioning despite facing major heat waves.” (07/02/26)
- Political Theater, 07/02/26
Source: Roll Call
“Sean Astin on being a leader during a time of upheaval.” (07/02/26)
https://chrt.fm/track/D3F8DG/traffic.megaphone.fm/FISCAL9075715862.mp3
- The Rise and Fall of Civilisations
Source: Cobden Centre
Max Rangeley speech in Iceland. (07/02/26)
https://www.cobdencentre.org/2026/07/speech-in-iceland-the-rise-and-fall-of-civilisations/
- Radio Atlantic, 07/02/26
Sourc: The Atlantic
“American History as Rorschach Test.” (07/02/26)
https://www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/2026/07/american-history-rorschach-test/687768
- Ron Paul Liberty Report, 07/02/26
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
“Communism Or Corporatism: What’s The Biggest Threat?” (07/02/26)
- The Daily Blast With Greg Sargent, 07/02/26
Source: The New Republic
“Trump Blurts Out Vile Scheme to Rig Midterms as Polls Take Brutal Turn.” (07/02/26)
https://newrepublic.com/article/212652/trump-blurts-vile-scheme-rig-midterms-polls-take-brutal-turn
- Underthrow Podcast, 07/02/26
Source: Underthrow
“Why Every Empire Dies After 250 Years. Is America Next?” (07/02/26)
- Show-Me Institute Podcast, 07/02/26
- The Headlines, 07/02/26
Source: New York Times
“A Quiet Surge in ICE Arrests, and Trump’s First Flight on Plane Given by Qatar.” (07/02/26)
- The Fifth Column, episode 564
Source: The Fifth Column
“The Revolution Will Be Staffed by PhDs (w/co-host Peter Miejer).” (07/02/26)
https://www.wethefifth.com/p/the-revolution-will-be-staffed-by
- Politico Playbook Audio Briefing, 07/02/26
- Declare Your Independence with Ernest Hancock, 07/02/26
Source: Freedom’s Phoenix
“Aaron Day (ZANO; Daylight Freedom; Brownstone Institute) comes on the show to discuss his campaign (blocking ballots), and the economy (ditch the dollar).” (07/02/26)
- The Kyle Anzalone Show, 07/01/26
Source: Libertarian Institute
“Larry Johnson: Trump’s Strait of Hormuz Nightmare.” (07/01/26)